Beijing's new gov't center speeds up sewage treatment

Beijing's suburban Tongzhou District will speed up construction of sewage treatment facilities this year as it is being redeveloped to host the capital's "subsidiary administrative center," vice mayor Lin Keqing said on Tuesday.

Tongzhou has 19 river sections rated as "black and odorous water bodies" by a Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development inspection.

The Beijing government will complete pollution control work in 18 of the sections totaling 102 km this year, said Lin at a meeting on the environment.

Seven water recycling plants will be built or renovated and 116 km of sewage pipelines will be added before the end of 2016 to solve the sewage treatment problems of 70 villages in Tongzhou.

The district will also develop 25,000 mu (1666.7 hectares) of green belts this year, Lin promised.

Beijing is shifting some of its administrative functions out of the city center and into Tongzhou to help address "urban ills" including traffic congestion and air pollution. The move is also part of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development plan.

"Significant progress" will have been made in building the administrative center by 2017, the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee said last summer.